


The Odd Fellow

by marybethsjournal



Category: Red Dead Redemption (Video Games)
Genre: F/M, Lore - Freeform, Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-14 09:20:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29168718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marybethsjournal/pseuds/marybethsjournal
Summary: Conflicted father-to-be John Marston meets an unique man who has a rather odd question for him.
Relationships: Abigail Roberts Marston/John Marston
Kudos: 5





	The Odd Fellow

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first post on a03 so there may be so formatting issues! Please bear with me <3 I hope y’all enjoy!

John felt guilty that he was even here. Abigail had been sick for weeks now and here he was, at a bar downing a whiskey. He would never forgive himself if something happened to her and the baby while he was out, but he couldn’t spend one more minute in camp. Maybe he was a coward for not being able to take sitting in their tent while she cried in pain and agony. Scratch that, he knew he was a coward because he had already thought about leaving. The thought seemed utopian, almost. Running away from commitment, from the baby, from everyone and everything that had ever depended on him. He could be sipping drinks at the beach with a lady on each arm if he played his scams just the right way. But no, he couldn’t do that. That wasn’t the right thing to do and besides, he wouldn’t be able to live with himself long enough to get to the “sipping expensive beverages and screwing whores” stage of his dream. Despite knowing what the right thing to do was and that he was going to do it, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he wasn’t meant to be a father. He’d liked Isaac, had played with him for hours on end when he was alive, but that wasn’t nearly the same thing as being a father himself. He had laughed at Arthur when Eliza got pregnant, saying that he was a fool for getting a girl pregnant. He supposed his karma had caught up to him now. John had all these conflicting emotions and couldn’t let them be seen at camp. He cared for Abigail deeply, wanted her to be okay, but couldn’t stand sitting by her side while she constantly vomited and fainted all day.   
“Get me another, Joe.” John slurred. His thoughts were barely even making sense to him anymore, and that was the way he liked it.  
The bartender poured him another drink but looked at John seriously.   
“Last one, John. Don’t need you going home to your lady too drunk.”  
“I don’t think I want to go home today.” John laughed.  
“Well you’re going to. We all know she’s sick, she needs you there. But it’s not safe for you to come back to her a drunken fool”  
John rolled his eyes. Since when were bartenders supposed to talk back to you? John also didn’t like what he thought Joe to be accusing him of.  
“What, you think just because I’m drunk I’m gonna go back and hit her or something? I ain’t ever done that. She hits ME.”   
Before Joe could answer him, the bar door flew open. John immediately turned his head to see who had just entered the bar. It was the middle of the day and it was odd for another man to come day drinking at Joe’s place. Hell, the man only really kept it open this early for John. What was more curious than the fact that there was another customer coming to the bar was this new man’s getup. He was a pale, mustached man in a black top hat and suit. Surely, a man dressed in such attire should be in an important business meeting at this time of day, not a small town bar. Strange.  
At first, John ignored the man. He wasn’t in the mood to be belittled by a man who surely was a well to do businessperson. But after his last drink settled in his system, he suddenly was telling the man his whole life story, from being what Arthur always called “a feral child” to what he had become, a deadbeat dad to be. He explained to the man that in his heart (he surprised himself by even admitting he had one of those) he loved Abigail, but could never be what she wanted him to be. He wasn’t going to leave her before she had the baby, but once the kid was actually here, John was scared he might take off. John wasn’t normally a “spill your guts” type drunk, so this was very odd behavior for him. It was almost like this man had somehow forced all this information out of him without even asking.  
“It seems like you’re choosing between happiness and a second generation.” the man in the top hat told John dryly.   
“You could say that again, friend. But I ain’t got much of a choice.” John replied in a solemn tone.  
“Well, what if you did? Happiness, or a second generation?”  
This enraged John. What was this man trying to suggest? There was already a baby, his baby. There was nothing to choose between. And if the man was suggesting… he wasn’t even going to go there. If he thought John would do that, he had him all wrong.  
“Listen buddy, I don’t think you heard me right. I already HAVE a baby. It’s just in my woman’s stomach, er womb or whatever she said, I don’t know. The point is, it’s there. There’s no choice to make and you’re a dumbass if you think there is.”  
John wouldn’t look at the man in the top hat anymore and it seemed Joe was about the ask the man to leave before the man quietly said, “Just answer the question.”  
John got up out of his seat and started walking to the door. “The second generation, asshole.” he spat, before walking out the door.  
Abigail was very excited to see John when he came back to camp. She ran up to him and gave him a big hug, ignoring the smell of whiskey coming from him, something she didn’t often do. John was a bit perplexed, she’d been bed bound for months.   
“What’s gotten into you?” he asked before she pulled him into a kiss, even though the taste of whiskey made her sick these days.  
“I feel so much better. I kept praying and praying that the baby and I would be okay and it looks like the Lord finally answered my prayers. I think everything is gonna be alright now, He’s watching over us.”  
John smiled and said, “Well ain’t that nice, sweetheart” before leading her back to their tent. But in the back of his mind he kept thinking of the man at the bar and his question. Surely this was just a coincidence?  
“Grimshaw and Tilly did the ring test today. It spun in a circle, that means we’re having a baby boy! Little John Marston Jr.!” Abigail practically squealed.   
“We’re not naming him that. I vote for George.”


End file.
